In Remembrance,
by YokoYuyGal
Summary: xover in later chapters. MA. Max is recaptured 3 years after her escape, and finds that things have changed while she was gone. Very dark, warnings inside.
1. Misery

I feel guilty, abandoning my other story for this one. Who knows though, maybe I'll finish this one. Please Review, even if you hate it. Warning: child abuse, in later chapters rape, and other bad stuff

Disclaimer: Don't own anything you recognize

Chapter 1: Misery

She hurt…it was the only possible thought that could make its way through her twisted mind. Twisted and tangled, but not broken, not yet. The thought filled her with a little spark of warmth. Wouldn't Zack be proud of his baby sister, eight months of psy-ops and reindoctrination and she hadn't broken yet. The happiness soured quickly and left a dull aching in her heart, his heart. Zack, God, her big brother, he was gone now, he'd left her. All of them had been recaptured. All the '09ers had been returned home. Except for Zack and Ben of course, Manticore only had their bodies now, harvested of all organs, burned, and given grave markers bearing only barcodes.

Staring at the black wall with only cracked eyes she found it funny that she had to work to remember her name. She could quote Shakespeare from a cultural lesson received years ago, but it was almost to much of an effort to hold onto her identity, 'Max'. Given, not 'haha' funny, but still kinda funny. It was the first time in weeks that she'd been able to get her bearings about her and she was somewhat awed by her ability to still be amused.

This was the longest she'd been left alone since she'd been brought in. She could feel with every cell in her abused eight year old body that something was changing. Minutes passed, maybe hours. Her head spun when the door finally opened, letting in light that was far too bright for her eyes. Head near lolling, she let them half drag her from her cell. She couldn't see where they were going, her eyes kept on fighting to stay closed when she blinked. There was a dull murmuring in the background, the sound of movement and speaking. Though it set a pounding in her head, she welcomed it, it was the first sound she'd heard in weeks other than her own screaming.

But God, it hurt, the brush of clothes, the hands around her arms, even the drag of her feet. Her vision was starting to dim further when the guard stopped. She could hear the opening of another door, felt it reverberating through her skull in sharp stabs. The guards let her drop inside the room, her mind fell into darkness before the door was shut behind her.

After a time she woke. She had no idea of how long she'd been out, but long enough for her body to begin healing. She'd been pushed against a wall, so that when she slowly managed to sit up she could lean back easily with her legs sprawled out before her, looking like some horribly broken doll. There was another person in the room, he stood silently as she arranged herself and schooled her features.

She finally looked up and met his eyes, her mask on perfectly. Taking him in though, she couldn't help but notice that he didn't look all that much better than her. The look he gave her was one of consideration, after a moment, he started, "You know you don't have to keep that numb look on your face all the time. Sometimes, drill, inspection, anytime we're on the field or being tested…even as beaten down as you are, short of a lobotomy you've still got that world class X-5 personality they hate so much."

"X-5 personality? "She couldn't help herself, he seemed so...sure. She wanted to talk to him, craving the conversation. Being around him, another X-5, she hadn't had that sub-conscious need filled since she was five years old.

He gave her a crooked smile, not quite a smirk, "A little too thinking, independent, rebellious. They might have been scared of escape attempts in '09, but now they're just scared we might revolt."

"Revolt?" She didn't bother hiding the disbelief in her voice as she parroted back at him.

His lips twitched closer to a smirk, "More a reaction than a revolt, you'll see." His face suddenly hardened, sterned, "Look I don't care what you're used to, but I'm not going to let you mess around here. People are going to have to depend on you or you'll be worse than useless. I get it, why you escaped I mean, but it's only gotten worse here and if you want to last more than a few weeks you have to shape up and figure out how this game is played."

"Game?" His words hit her, and suddenly she knew without a doubt that this guy would never have a problem getting her riled. An hour ago she was passing out, now she had enough energy to be offended, "What do you mean shape up? Do you think I'm some ordinary or something?"

Somewhat bemused at her temper he replied, "No, I'm saying you're out of practice and everyone else isn't. As far as the game goes that's just, things are…different, changed."

"Changed how? Tell me."

Frowning and shaking his head to clear his thoughts he looked at her seriously, "The guards…you know they can hurt us right?"

Her look was irridiculous, "Or kill us, yeah I think I caught on."

"No, I mean really. Hurt each of us physically of course, but I mean the others. They figured it out a while back. Some of us are stubborn even when we know it will land us in discipline, but we get to attached. Even since we were infants we've been learning how to take care of each other. Most of it's genetic, instinctual. The response to others in our pack being abused is to lash out or at lease comfort, but reasoning tells us that that only makes it worse, so we have to keep a hold on our own reins."

"So they really do control us now. We can't even interact with out own."

"No it's not that easy. The guards, doctors, anyone that gets too close to the project are all scared of us. By the time we get to maturity there would be no way for them to stop us if we ever stopped caring about how many of us would die if we were to revolt. They're depending on our instant to protect to keep us from fighting them. Day to day is a whole different thing. Guards try to control us, and they do, but if they push it to far we, as a group, can't stop a single transgenic from reacting and breaking a couple necks. It's starting to get worse. You haven't been around any male Xs for a while have you?"

She was starting to tire again and should her head in wonder.

"All of us are getting more territorial, but the males seem to be more in touch with it. The girls usually manage to mellow them out, so the guards haven't notice yet, but we need to be careful." Seeing her start to loose focus he hurried, "452 my designation is 494, I've been assigned as your new C.O. I'll do everything I can to make sure your okay, but I need you to work with everyone."

Despite her fading consciousness she understood the message, not just work, care, care like she did for her siblings. Looking at him, his hazel green eyes passionate in his belief and the serious set of his mouth contrasting so starkly against his thin bruised and cut face that she knew couldn't be older than ten. Meeting his gaze once more before blacking out again she nodded and said , "Yes" unable to stop the smallest beginnings of a smile she added, "…sir."

Looking at her unconscious form for a moment, 494 moved her so she lay on the on her side instead of leaning uncomfortably against the wall. She was part of his unit now.


	2. Welcome to Paradise

Okay…so sorry for the long update time. I was out of the country, then at the beach with no internet, then I started college…which by the way ROCKS!! VT is the best school ever! Anyways, sorry. I'll try to better, but no guarantees.

In response to reviews: I love you all for reviewing. Seriously, wonderful. I think the major question had to do with her age. As mentioned below this will probably be an even bigger issue in this chapter. Yes, I do know that she was older in the show, and, even though I can't remember exactly why right now, I do have a reason for making it younger.

IMPORTANT: Eventually, this is going to crossover with something. I'm taking suggestions, I was toying with X-men, supernatural…..just toss out any suggestion and go ahead and mention anything you'd like to see happen. I'm all about taking suggestions.

WARNING: This is messed up, seriously wrong stuff. I do not approve of it. But I think it makes sense biologically if you consider that they are part animal and that, as soldiers, Manticore probably gave them all sorts of growth factors to try to push them towards maturity as fast as possible. Anyways, nothing to explicit in this chapter. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Welcome to Paradise

452 woke at the sound of the buggle. She rushed along with the rest of her unit to get dressed and make her bed before going out to the drill field to stand at attention with the other X-5s. Her hair had grown out less than an inch since they stopped buzzing it so it required no real attention. She found herself staring at the back of 132's head. She knew for a fact that the girl probably had a nice sized lump on it. They'd been sparring last night in the gym and she'd landing a solid kick before the blond had surrendered.

As they took off on their morning jog, she found herself reminiscing. It had been just over a year ago that 494 had met her in the cell that they shared for a week. Once she had regained consciousness, she soon realized that her new C.O. looked exactly like her brother Ben. It had unnerved her for a while, but there was enough work to be done that by the end of the first day, she was too tired to care what he looked like, and was happy for whatever company he provided.

They trained during that week. She discovered that along with being sent to psy-ops because of the original escape, he had been detained their even longer once Ben's psychosis had been discovered. When he introduced her to the rest of the unit, she had expected to be greeted with some amount of distrust, however, the others seemed to be willing to give her a chance upon seeing 494's easy acceptance of her.

It didn't take her long to understand why he had been able to forgive her and her former unit's actions so easily. He really did have too much going on to worry about anything but her ability to cooperate and work with the rest of the transgenics.

The problems with the guards were bad, but there seemed to be something going on just in the general population. The males had started fighting. Not just sparring, but actually fighting to kill. It kept on getting worse, no matter how often the orders went out to put a stop to it. So far there had already been two deaths and the only reason there weren't more was that other transgenics stepped in to try to stop the fights as soon as a winner was clear. They'd managed to keep the guards uninvolved by making sure none of the fighting took place unless they were unsupervised, but, the injuries and deaths were noted, and discipline was becoming even tighter.

Other than the occasional evenings that they were allowed to use for unsupervised training, it seemed like they were never not being watched. The training had become much more intense, not just physically, but mentally. The hunts that they had gone on years earlier chasing down fugitives were only preparation for the training that they endured later. All of them learned from experience to both give and receive torture, able to turn off their emotions to save their ability to feel later.

It was understandable then that 494 had been so pissed at her when he first caught her wondering the halls at night about a week after joining her new unit. He hadn't screamed, but the look in his eyes had quickly stopped the fierce argument that she had been half way through spouting. He had grabbed her by the arm and physically dragged her to one of the back gyms. The moment that the door had shut silently behind them and he released her arm she'd swung a fist at his head before trying to sweep his legs out from under him. Neither worked well as he soon landed a punch in her stomach, brought her down to the mat and pinned her on her stomach.

She squirmed for a moment before focusing in on the feet in front of her. Feeling her still, 494 let her go. There were about twenty X-5s in the gym. Apparently, the nocturnal units had started using the gym during the night, none of them walking around unnecessarily outside of their barracks and risking being caught by the guards. It was a few days before she had been able to thank 494 while looking him in the eyes. He got the message that it wasn't just a thank you for the extra training that really was helping, it was also an apology for taking such stupid risks.

It was actually the extra training that she first met her sister again. X5-172 had been recaptured a few weeks before she had. Their relationship wasn't as strong as it once had been,452 now being part of a different unit, but she enjoyed spending time with her old unit mate and was happy to hear that all of the rest of her unit that had been recaptured had survived reindoctrination, apparently her own stubbornness had earned her extra time and pain than had been necessary for some of the escapes.

The training had come in handy. Thus far, she had been on one military campaign and one group assassination. The first ending her in the middle of the South American jungle, and the second posing as a group of five fiends visiting the an outdoor mall in Berlin at the same time a politician was giving a speech in a building across the street. It had actually been 232, a sniper unit, that had taken the shot, but she had killed one on the guards that had been stationed near by.

Coming back to her senses she finished her final lap before falling back into line. The rest of the day continued as usual. Breakfast, sparring, language and culture classes, and then dividing up into groups by specialization. The training varied by what each soldier was built to specialize in, the nocturnal units even had dark rooms to practice some sequences in. After that they did group tactics, dinner, and then, instead of specialized mission scenarios they did an obstacle course.

452 felt uneasy the entire day. The males seemed to be nearly ready to jump out of their skin, lashing out when others got to near to them. The girls who were usually able to calm them to some extent didn't seem to be having any effect. She was relieved that for the most part 494 stayed out of it. He had fought before, and usually won, but what with all the blood flying, she tended to worry. Not that she didn't worry about any of the males, but 494 was still one of the transgenics that she felt closest too, like he knew her better for having seen her at her most pathetic.

The tension ended up effected their performance. Most of them made it through without too much trouble and were told to shower off around 2200, but four of units were required to report to the field and continue doing drills as they had dropped their times too far.

The three males were distracted and edgy, unable to do much more than react to the two trainers orders and shouts as they lacked focus during their drills. The female, one of the oldest of the series, 112 seemed to be suffering from a very non-transgenic like fever. She couldn't focus and was swaying on her feet, heat was radiating off of her in waves and she felt like her skin was so oversensitive the training clothes that she wore almost everyday of her life were rubbing her raw. As out of it as she was, she felt the need to run.

The presence of all three males who she could smell the testosterone and aggression emanating from seemed overwhelming. Though she herself had never tasted candy, she assumed that the feeling was something like eating far too much of it at once. As intoxicating as the smell was, the strength of it was almost making her nauseous.

She began to stumble away from the group, towards the forest, ignoring the guards as they shouted at her to fall back in line. She really shouldn't have been surprised when the tasser hit the top of her neck, but all the same, she her breath was caught in her thought as her knees buckled and her muscles began cramping uncontrollably.

She didn't notice the males attack the guards, nor did she hear their screams as the men died before she herself finally slipped for consciousness for a few moments. When she came too, she barely registered the sounds of the males fighting each other. She did, however, notice when one of them approached her. Rolling her over and leaning in to inhale her sent, smearing blood on her face as he did so. She began to thrash and fight the smell of blood and aggression dampening whatever attraction she might have felt, but failing to clear her head. She treid to get up, but the muscles in her legs were still too stiff and locked. Either way, by then it was already too late.

"Two dead guards, two dead X-5 males, one male that we'll have to put down, and a female that, according to psy-ops is exhibiting self destructive tendencies along with several injuries that may take up to a week to heal. The scientists are telling me that we should be expecting similar defects in all of our X-5s, they aren't sure about the 6s. Honestly Deck, I'm really not sure how we can salvage these units." The cruel twist on Director Renfro's lips suggested that she found the situation more amusing than troubling. Lydecker would have called her on the bullshit had they not been in conference with the committee.

"True, but it is believed that the males will not react if they are not first signaled by the pheromones. The increased violence can be attributed to the normal hormonal changes that they are going through as they try to fight for rank."

"They already have a rank. We give them any ranks that should matter." Trust her to argue about every detail.

"That's not the point." Lydecker stood, emphasizing in his statement, "The point is that such incidents can be controlled as long as the females are kept in isolation during the duration of their heats. We already have people working on finding a way to predict them."

"We've already run through that scenario with psy-ops and the think tanks. It is likely that these heats left…unsatisfied, could continue on for longer durations. The damage that the females do to themselves, and the exhaustion added in means that they would be out of the field for an unacceptable amount of time. Plus, what if they don't get to isolation fast enough, or, god forbid on a mission? Unless you want to be cleaning up your kids off the grass every time they start killing each other over one of the females you need a different system."

Lydecker sat in silence. He knew that she was right, weighing out the gains and losses the committee would only see how many resources were being wasted on unusable and perhaps risky troops. One of the lab techs that was sitting in on the meeting cleaned his through a bit self-consciously. Receiving the attention of the committee he adjusted his tie nervously before speaking.

"In theory, I think that the only problem with last weeks scenario was that it was uncontrolled." Seeing the raised eyebrows he hurried along, "I mean, if we were to treat the X-5s as a wild population, it is likely that it would have been far less destructive. The males still may have fought, but most likely, they would have done so over an extended period of time, establishing a more solid pecking order without any interference from guards. When the female came in to heat, it is unlikely that deaths would have occurred. Given more area, the female probably wouldn't have been approached until she was further into her cycle and the male would, most likely not have been as aggressive. Thus, decreasing the injuries and the length of the cycle."

Lydecker felt distinctly uncomfortable hearing what he had always viewed as soldiers having their breeding habits discussed like they were herding beasts. He had never been one to deny their animal nature, but with their survival being dependent upon the committee's decisions, the detachment almost seemed surreal. Thinking that the scientist was done of the chairs asked, "So, your suggestion is that we let billions of dollars in research and development out to pasture so that they can breed in peace?'

"No, no! I believe that it is important that we understand what their ideal biological process might be if we wish to accommodate our program for the greatest output. Even if we could keep the females in perfect isolation during their heats, the males would still suffer developmentally and most likely, become more volatile as, I believe, it is part of their natural instinct to breed. I am suggesting that we do the opposite. Pair off the transgenics. When they go into heat, let them breed. If a single male is assigned to each female, there shouldn't be anything to fight over, and if they are kept confined to and individual cell, hopefully the others shouldn't react. While it is unpredictable as to what the extent of injury the female might suffer, the males should be kept in good condition and the, with any luck, both will be recovered within a week."

Lydecker felt a sense of growing dread. His first reaction was disgust that anyone could suggest something while they were so young. Hell, at any age, the concept seemed brutal, near equivalent to locking a woman in a room with a rapist. Looking around though, he felt that he may have been alone in his moral dilemma. Renfro looked like she had just been given an enlightening thought.

"Of course if we are careful to run the DNA matches we can also begin experimenting with their reproductive capabilities." It was something that he knew she had been pushing for, even in vitro, she wanted to see how the traits would pass and how viable the process might be for later generations. Lydecker had fought her on it, his kids were soldiers, not cows. At the time, the committee had agreed with him, deciding that they wanted to experiment with new series and give this one a chance to mature before continuing.

Luckily, they still held that belief, "Director, our decision stands. If the X-5s are allowed to breed it would be prudent to pair them off with compatible genetic partners, however, they will be kept on a strict birth control. Rest assured, we are very curious about the future generations of this series, but if we find that you are tampering to encourage reproduction, you will be punished." Thus chastened, Renfro looked away and became quite. She was well known for her somewhat radical methods, but even she did not want to attract the committee's bad attentions.

Seeing that they were seriously considering the scientist's, who was know fielding questions and glowing with pride, suggestion, Lydecker decided to interject, "I'm not sure that this it for the best." If Renfro was known for being ruthless, he'd always had a soft spot for his kids and the committee knew it. His words wouldn't change their decision, the best he could do was influence it. "However, if you feel that this is the best course of action, I have a suggestion. Have the psy-ops team look through their psychological profiles. If they can find better matches, it would probably be fore the best that we take it into consideration. It may lesson any physical damage." Even saying the words he had a mental picture of the battered and beaten 112, and sent up a spontaneous prayer that he wasn't putting Max into the same position.

Over the next few days, the details were hashed out. 112 was eventually terminated and Manticore developed an official plan as to how to deal with the heat issue. The X-5, and later perhaps X-6, units were paired off based upon DNA and mental compatibility. Each pair was given a single cell with one bed. And, if need be, the hall could be evacuated if a female on that hall went into heat. Overall Lydecker was disgusted, but it was the best he could manage for his kids.

That afternoon, the X-5 units were told to retrieve all of their things from the barracks and report to the drill field. From there, they were assigned new cell numbers. They all knew some of what had happened to 112. Though they had tried, they couldn't find out what had caused the three males to seemingly go insane and attack their trainers, each other, and 112. All they could find out was that all transgenics involved had died or been terminated and that the entire facility had been on edge ever since. They certainly didn't connect their change in sleeping quarters with the incident.

As 452 carried her things into her cell she was surprised to see another figure already setting his things down. Entering, and giving a little smile when 494 looked up she studied the room. It wouldn't be so bad sharing a room with him, when he was away from the guards he as good company and always willing to talk to her. Giving a shrug and sitting on the edge of the bed she said, "I guess Manticore is cutting expenses and having us double up in beds."


	3. I'm Burning For You

AN: Thanks for all of the reviews. Here is chapter, as fast as I could get it out as a sorry for the long update time that I had and probably will have again, so sorry in advance. WARNING: sexual situations, I tried to keep it way vaguer than some of the stuff I've read on mostly because of the whole age thing, I hope I don't offend anyone too much, feel free to drop me a PM if you have a question, cause I'm not that wonderful about answering review questions…..I'm still looking for crossover ideas, so far I've gotten 2 votes for SPN which is fine with me, but feel free to suggest other stuff to. Also, any ideas, send them to me. I really need new ideas to keep writing this.ENJOY

Disclaimer: Not mine.

I'm Burning For You

452 actually resented the sound of the bugle calling all of the transgenic to get out of bed. It was starting to get cold outside, and her cot was so warm. Feeling the cause of said warmth start to sit up she gave a groan and followed. They dressed in a comfortable silence, 494 still waking up and she not feeling the need to fill the silence. They had been sharing a cell for the past two weeks and it seemed that their understanding of each other had developed farther than it had before. She hated to credit Manticore with anything, but it did seem that all of the pairs that they had put together got along well and seemed to be making seamless teams in drills.

As they lined up for drills she noticed that two of the X-5s had returned. Recently, pairs of X-5s would disappear and show up at drills a few days later with no explanation. In fact, the returning trangenics seemed to be detached and a bit jumpy. It was strange, the pair seemed to be near inseparable, but at the same time, they seemed uncomfortable. 452 had confronted a few of the females, and she knew that 494 had done the same with some of the males, but so far no one was willing to talk. 452 was fairly sure that Manticore was doing some sort of experimentation on them.

The day continued. One thing that she was grateful for was that it seemed like the males weren't fighting as much, or at least not nearly so viciously. Strangely, instead of constantly being aggressive, the males were starting to become almost clingy. The one sure way to get a male to lash out was for another male to try to approach his bunk mate alone. It was weird, when asked, the guys couldn't really explain it, and the girls thought it was a bit funny, though sometimes annoying. The closest to a conclusion that they could really reach was that the guys didn't like having the girls carry another guy's sent into their cells.

By the end of the day she was sore and happy to step under the showers. Looking over as she rubbed soap into her still short locks she noticed a fading bruise on one of the other females' lower back. It was the X5 who had just returned that morning. The mark didn't really fit with the image 452 had been starting to form in her head of what experimentation might be taking place, but she knew that asking wouldn't get her any answers. She noticed the girl's partner standing only a few feet away, even in the showers he didn't seem to want to stay far away. 452 decided to talk to 494 about it again later, but she was actually to mentally tired to deal with it that night. She didn't think that she even felt like going to the gym that night. Toweling off and returning to her cell, she gave an easy smile when 494 entered behind her.

452 groaned and rolled over onto her back. Beside her, 494 was just as restless. There was a muggy heat in the cell. It wasn't just the heat though, some uncontrollable energy was making it impossible to lie still. Finally giving up and rolling out of bed 452 let out a tired, "I give up" before quickly stripping off her clothes and lying down on the concrete floor.

Hearing 452's barely audible sigh of relief as she relaxed a little against the cool floor 494 repressed the sudden burst of possessive anger at 452 for having moved away from him. Shaking his head in wonder at his strange reaction he followed after her, similarly stripping down before lying in the floor.

Usually, 452 would have commented on his clingy gesture, but she just watched his movements quietly. None of the Xs were shy about nudity, group showers and close living conditions made it something of a non-topic. However, it wasn't really normal for the two of them to just be lying here, buck naked. The sudden awkwardness of the silent breathing almost drove her to put back on some of the clothes, but something stopped her.

After a few moments some of the strangeness had faded, and for that same, strange, and still unknown reason she didn't even react when he moved closer until there was less than an inch of space between them and slung an arm around her stomach. Though she was obviously feeling the heat more than her male counterpart, the warmth of his body was soothing. She shifted, uncomfortable, when she heard him take in a deep breath, taking in her sent, first at her neck, under her chin, then moving down, hovering somewhere above her stomach.

She had to crane her neck to get a good look at him, his arm kept her pinned down, unable to really move. "Hey, 494, what are you doing? Come on, get off…"

"Don't you smell that?" He hadn't even shifted his grip.

"What smell?'

"It's coming off of you. It's not really…" Giving up on his half formed explanation 494 leaned foreward until he fell lightly on top of her, head buried in her neck, and legs tangled with her own. Despite the seemingly random action, she didn't really try to get him off of her yet. Touch was a usual and welcome thing among transgenic, but something seemed so wrong to her. She was restless and as much as she enjoyed the nearness her guts where twisting as she shifted restlessly underneath him. It wasn't until she felt something hard press against her hip that, she started to buck, trying to throw him off.

"494! Get off of me." Ignoring her 494 continued to breath in her scent. When she felt his tongue slide across the skin above her pulse she went dead still. Something was happening, she wasn't sure what, but a sudden panic began inside of her; she couldn't do it. Breaking from her stillness she began to thrash and try to fight him off in earnest.

494 was having a hard time keeping control of his thoughts. He didn't quite understand how the situation had quickly shifted to something resembling an all out fight. He couldn't understand why didn't just get off of her, why he seemed to have almost no control over some of his actions. The smell that seemed to be growing stronger kept distracting him from any coherent train of through. Had he thought that the guards would have responded, he would have tried to call for them, asking to be let out of the cell. Whatever the smell was, the small space was only making it worse, had they been outside he might have barely noticed it yet.

His reasoning was starting to go out the window. 452's continuing struggle was setting off his aggressive instincts. As the minutes ticked by, his self control snapped and he lost his ability to reason as his senses were flooded with pheromones.

452 sensed a change in him. Until that moment he had simply been restraining her, however, his muscles had suddenly gone tense and she had stopped her struggling momentarily to asses the change. Experimentally, she twisted, trying to move away. Fast as a snake, his fist lashed out and landed a blow to the side of her face. Pain blossomed through her nose. Her upper lip was cut too. It wasn't the hardest she'd ever been hit, he was holding back, but it left her stunned for a moment.

She was shocked. Despite the fighting between the males, never had she seen a male hit a female outside of training. Everything in her screamed that it was just wrong. 494 had always had her back, this, whatever it was, was dangerous. She went limp hoping that by not struggling, maybe he would be able to calm down.

She was startled when he grabbed her by the midsection and rolled her over, her face scraping against the concrete. Immediately she felt two sharply conflicting instincts. The first made her body react automatically, her back arching and her knees coming forward as she got on to all fours. 494 made a rumbling notice deep in his chest that sounded something like a purr.

The second, which kicked in as soon as she'd noticed her bodies instinctive movements, was to move away from the male behind her as fast as possible. Feeling the hand on her hip she kicked out with her left leg, hitting him firmly in the chest and sending him toppling backwards. She stood up and started backing away. Her kick wasn't strong enough to have injured him. Even in her panicked state her mind and body recognized 494 as a friend.

494 didn't understand. The female in front of him had been compliant for a moment, even reacting in what his mind interpreted as a positive gesture, then she had lashed out. The part of 494 which had begun to calm was again starting to fill with inordinate amounts of anger ands aggression. Had they been outside, this aggression may have been worked out naturally, either fighting another male, or chasing down 452 through the woods while the pheromones in her system grew until she too could feel their affect. As it was, they were stuck in a small room where the level of pheromones was reaching high levels for 494, her rejection had triggered the more possessive and aggressive tendencies in his nature, there was no one to fight and no where to run, and 452 had come nowhere near having enough time to possess the hormones going through her system and react to them fully.

Whatever self control that 494 might have been retaining left him. Rushing forward he landed a punch in her stomach. She hadn't expected the attack and curled in as her knees started to buckle. Grabbing at the few curls long enough to grasp he pulled her down quickly. Her chin and knees scraped the floor and her forehead banged it hard enough to have black spots dancing in front of her vision. Despite the dizziness and begins of a pounding headache she quickly tried to raise herself again. She wasn't able to make it this time. 494 was behind her and in a weirdly detached way, which she could only blame on the beating her head had taken, she felt his fingers dig into her hips. The sudden burning pain she felt between her legs, and then somehow inside of her froze her struggles. She wondered for one horrifying moment if 494 had somehow stabbed her, but no, the pain was different, not fatal.

After a moment of him moving she began struggle again. At first he just dug his fingers in harder, but when she continued, he slammed a hard first between her shoulder blades sending her upper body back to the floor. She tried several more times, but after a while she just lay there still.

Her thoughts seemed to be centered around his betrayal and tears soon ran down her face. That he could hurt her like this after everything somehow was more painful than the physical abuse. She knew that he wasn't in control, but she wasn't sure either of them would be able to forgive him when this was done. Once she stopped struggling, the pain of him forcing himself inside her soon began to go away. Instead, a strange heat began to emanate from her lower stomach. Soon, she felt him spend himself inside of her. A sticky fluid mixing with the blood that was already starting to dry on her thighs.

He collapsed beside her, his breath labored. Some small part of her brain whispered at her to take the chance and try to kill him now, while his eyes were half closed and his groin still wet with her blood. She ignored it, focusing instead on the still present heat in her belly. It began to spread, and after a moment her skin felt like every inch of it was being pricked with needles.

She squirmed, trying to find a comfortable position, the burning, prickling driving her to distraction. Already, wounded thoughts of betrayal or feelings of pain were giving way to the hormones that were affecting her own body. Settling again on her stomach, pressed flat against the cooler concrete surface the began grinding her hips, trying to lessen the heat. A sixth sense caused her to look up in time to catch 494's eye as he observed her. Watching her like a cat might watch its prey. Seeing the look in his eyes, a small sound, caught between a moan and a whimper escaped her thought.

The sound did a lot to pacify 494's reactions, and this time when he pushed himself inside of her, it was more gentle. 452 was surprised to feel the near painful sensation simmer down to something calmer. She was even more surprised when she found herself humming and waves of pleasure pulsed through her in time with 494's movements.

Over the next two days, they came together as often as their bodies would allow. Not always gently, she had more than one set of bloody teeth marks on her neck, and he long gashes produced by her short nails, but after the first initial twelve hours or so, their were moments of coherency. She remembered the first time he had come out of the haze enough for his actions to register. The look on his face was all that it took to make her start to forgive him. She had reached out for him during one of their short interludes of sleep, and his absence had awoken her. She soon found him pressed against the opposite wall, and look of horror on his face as he looked at her bruised and bloody body.

She convinced him to come back to her, not sure how he'd react seeing her try to walk a straight line towards him. She could tell that he was still under the pull of her pheromones, but his concern for her momentarily gave him some self restraint. As much as her body had ached for the sex only moments before, it seemed like that was the first time that she'd seen 494 since the ordeal had started. She surprised herself by starting to cry when he wrapped his arms around her.

The heat hadn't faded yet, and they soon began another round of breeding. This time, though, 494 seemed to keep some amount of control over his actions and 452 felt an emotional as well as physical reaction to their actions. By the end of the second day, as the pheromones began to clear, their copulation had become an almost sweet and drawn out thing rather than the brutal rutting they had engaged in earlier.

They had both slipped off into sleep with their limbs tangled when the guards opened the cell. They were led, still naked toward the clinic in a daze. 452 noted that they immediately sent in janitorial staff to clean the cell. From outside, the door, she couldn't smell the musky sent which had been part of her world for the past two days. The ventilation system had been installed especially for the new cells, and she was willing to bet that if the top opening, just big enough for the guards to see through during rounds, was closed hardly any sound escaped.

The rest of the units were still finishing their drills. It wasn't until they reached the clinic that it occurred to her that this was probably what had happened to the transgenic that went missing. Some part of her knew that their was no rational way for her to blame this on Manticore, other than the obvious fact of their creation, the facility had nothing to gain by it.

She had apparently zoned out, because she missed the guard's order to sit on the examination table. When pulled back his arm to deliver a backhanded slap as punishment for her inattention, he was quickly confronted with a snarling 494.

Jerking back like he'd been bitten, he made a motion as if to reach for his tazer. "What the fuck! Little animal."

Another guard stepped forward, "Don't bother with it. You know they're half crazy when they come out of heat. Just don't mess with them and stay away from the female." Turing to address them he said, "Alright soldiers, get up on the examination table."

The first guard spoke as they lifted themselves up and sat, side by side, waiting for a doctor. "By the looks of some of these females they're more than half crazy while they're in heat." She felt 494 move closer to her until their legs were touching from hip to knee. "Then again, by the looks of that male, she was clawing for more." The guard lifted his lips up in a sneer as he unabashedly eyed both of their still unclothed bodies. She could feel 494 bristling, like he was preparing to throw himself at the man.

The tension was reduced only slightly by the medic's arrival. In a coldly impersonal way, he gave each of them a thorough exam, and pronounced them both unbroken. Apparently that meant that with a large meal, some antibiotics and bed rest, they would be able to return to training sometime during the next day. They both kept waiting, for some reason, and despite all prior experience, expecting someone to tell them what had happened, or at least if they would be punished for it. No answer was provided. Except for a doctor murmuring with distaste about how they had caused extra work by injuring each other as a he cleaned a wound, it seemed as though it had never happened.

When they were told to go to their cell, change from their hospital gowns and repot to the field, neither expected their cell to look as it did. It was as it always had been, immaculate. The sheets were clean and the bed made with military precision. The only scents were of cleaning supplies and cotton. It was somehow disturbing, and suddenly the other transgenics' silence made more sense. It would eventually have to be discussed, but how could they explain this when all around them the world seemed unchanged. Manticore obviously didn't want this to effect their day to day training, but already they knew it was different. As they went out to the field and met the rest of the X-5s, some with understanding in their eyes and some still curios 452 felt 494 move closer to her, almost like staking a claim, her first instinct was to be offended, but thinking about it, she didn't mind. Something in her still craved the nearness, really, everything had already changed.


End file.
